The foreign secretary said the UK will continue to provide defensive support against ‘reckless Iranian threats’ but stressed it would not be drawn into a wider Middle East conflict.
Yvette Cooper made the comments after reports that Tehran fired ballistic missiles at the joint US‑UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. US media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said two missiles were launched toward the island; one reportedly failed in flight and the other was intercepted by a US warship. The BBC understands those reports to be accurate.
Diego Garcia lies roughly 2,350 miles from Iran, and there are questions over whether Tehran possesses missiles with the range to reach the base. The BBC understands the launches took place late on Thursday into Friday morning.
Ministers in London met on Friday to discuss the wider conflict, and the UK agreed to allow the US to use British bases in operations against Iranian sites targeting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The US military declined to comment on the Diego Garcia incident.
Cooper reiterated the government’s position on Saturday, saying the UK would take defensive action against ballistic missile threats to protect UK interests. ‘As the prime minister has made clear, we will provide defensive support against these reckless Iranian threats but we have not been — and we continue not to be — involved in offensive action,’ she said, adding that the UK would not be drawn into a wider conflict and wanted a swift resolution in the national interest and to support regional stability.
Diego Garcia is a strategically located airbase capable of hosting long‑range bombers and has been used as a launch point for operations in the Middle East. The UK has limited use of its own bases for US strikes to targets that threaten UK interests and allies in the region.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke with the Cypriot president to confirm RAF Akrotiri would not be used by the US to strike Iranian missile sites. Earlier this month Iran launched several unmanned drones at the Cypriot base, one of which caused what was described as minimal runway damage.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has warned that UK involvement is ‘putting British lives in danger’ and said Tehran would ‘exercise its right to self‑defence.’ Domestically, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have called for a Commons vote on allowing US use of UK bases, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described the decision as the ‘mother of all U‑turns.’
Sir Keir will chair a Cobra meeting next week to consider measures to limit the conflict’s impact on the cost of living. The International Energy Agency has warned that disruption to oil supplies could affect wider energy markets. Cooper said Iran’s ‘reckless attempt to hijack the global economy’ was driving up living costs and that supporting families remained the government’s top priority.
On the future of the Chagos Islands, the UK government has agreed to cede sovereignty to Mauritius while leasing back the Diego Garcia base. Sir Keir has argued the arrangement is necessary to safeguard the base’s continued operation, amid past legal disputes from Mauritius over British sovereignty.
The Chagos archipelago has been under British control since 1814 and was once administered from Mauritius. In 1965 the islands became a separate British overseas territory ahead of Mauritian independence, and the UK paid Mauritius a £3m grant at the time.